Fox News "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Debbie Dingell
Interview
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WALLACE: Michael Cohen's testimony is just the tip of the iceberg of what House Democrats plan for investigating the president.
Joining me now to discuss what comes next, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell. If she co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.
And, congresswoman, welcome back to "Fox News Sunday."
REP. DEBBIE DINGELL, D-MICH.: Chris, it's good to be with you.
WALLACE: This is the first time that I've had a chance to see you and to talk with you since you lost your wonderful husband of 38 years, John Dingell. I know I speak for a lot of people, how are you doing?
DINGELL: It's hard. You know, I -- but I can hear him in my ear saying get back out there and work. He was a great man and we had a love affair -- you know the love affair we had. You were there when I -- I remember talking to you about whether I should accept that first date with him. And we were -- he was my love.
WALLACE: And what did I say?
DINGELL: Well, you didn't want me to marry him. It -- most people don't know that you and I lived next door to each other.
WALLACE: Yes, we did. And -- and you were very -- you were like the -- the -- the fairy godmother to my children. I didn't want you to move out of town.
DINGELL: And I didn't want to move. So that was hard. But we had a love affair and you know the love affair we had and I've got a hole in my heart.
WALLACE: Good. Good. Well, we -- it's a hole in a lot of our hearts and you have a lot of friends.
DINGELL: Thank you.
WALLACE: President Trump spoke at CPAC yesterday and he said with the Russia investigation, his terms, now basically falling apart, House Democrats want to go after him on a bunch of other things. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: So they don't have anything with Russia. There's no collusion. So now they go and morph into, let's inspect every deal he's ever done. We're going to go into his finances. We're going to check his deals. We're going to check -- these people are sick.
Right now we have people in Congress that hate our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And, in fact, there are at least six House committees, got them up on the screen, looking into various areas, from Russia, to Mr. Trump's tax returns, to his charitable foundation. I know that the House Democratic majority is also passing bills -- you passed the gun control bill this week -- but do you really want Trump investigations to take up so much of the time and drown out so much of the other things you're doing?
DINGELL: So I'm going to actually say that we, as a Congress, not just Democrats, Democrats and Republicans, can walk and chew gum at the same time. Congress has a fundamental responsibility for oversight and investigations. And I think we have abdicated it the last two years.
At the same time we have a fundamental responsibility to the people that elected us to be for the people. And I think that we've got to make sure we're -- we did guns this week, which is a subject that matters deeply to me. It's very complicated for me, as you well know too.
But we've got to do something about health care. There isn't a Republican that cannot care as much as we as Democrats do about how much the cost of insulin is. We need to do something about our broken infrastructure. The president said he would work with us. We need to do something about pensions and trade and a lot of other -- we can do both.
WALLACE: But -- but the fact is, even -- even though you passed the gun control bill this week, most people don't even know that because the only thing that got attention from the news media, and I think rightly so, was the Cohen hearing.
DINGELL: So, I -- look, I think the Cohen hearing is a first step in a very legitimate oversight process where we need to understand. I don't think -- I don't quite agree with the president. I don't know what the Mueller investigation is going to say. I'm staying -- I'm waiting for facts. I think we need to get the facts. People are asking questions. And not all oversight needs to be, as you see, Chairman Schiff is holding closed-door hearings. They're gathering the facts. They're getting the information. That's legitimate.
But we are also, and need to, deliver for the American people.
WALLACE: OK.
DINGELL: And they're holding us accountable. Do you think that people across this country aren't worried about what's happening to the cost of insulin, which has gone up like $300, $400 a month? We need to do something on drug prices and that's something we should be able to agree on.
WALLACE: All right, you talked about the Mueller report. The president spoke out very graphically and forcefully yesterday at CPAC about the Mueller special counsel investigation. In fact, we had to bleep out some of this. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT: All of a sudden they're trying to take you out with bull (EXPLETIVE DELETED), OK. With bull (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: You've said -- before this you've said that -- that Democrats moving to impeach the president could, in your words, tear the country apart.
Where are you on impeachment now? More importantly, where is the House Democratic leadership? Is that off the table?
DINGELL: I think that we're waiting for the facts. I've always said that. And I do not think an impeachment should ever be a partisan event. I think we need to have Republicans and Democrats or it will tear this country apart. It's a very serious movement. But that's why oversight's a legitimate function. This investigation is a legitimate function.
You know, one of the things that I thought about as everybody started talking about, why do we need to know about Russia or why do -- you know, during this government shutdown, I met with TSA, FBI, Custom and Border Patrol, Secret Service, and all of them were scared to death that their credit rating could be impacted and they could lose their job. And why would they lose their job? Because people think that they might be subject to some kind of blackmail.
So, if we're going to hold a TSA or an FBI or s Secret Service who puts their life on the line, isn't that a legitimate role of government to make sure that our top leaders are not -- that we're just getting the facts to make sure that there isn't any interference in this Russia -- by Russia in our election process or there isn't something that's being held over the head of any elected official?
WALLACE: You talk about a bipartisan effort, but the fact is in that five hours, whatever it was a factual running time, House Oversight Committee hearing, every Republican with the possible exception of your fellow Michigander Justin Amash, sided strongly with the president and went after Michael Cohen. There was no bipartisan agreement about even looking into the allegations that Cohen was making.
DINGELL: So we want --
WALLACE: Are you disappointed that Republicans aren't --
DINGELL: I -- I think that Republicans have -- you know, I -- we talked about John at the beginning of this show. He was equally hard on members of his own party as he was too Republicans. He believed that that was one of the most fundamental responsibilities of our Congress is to hold people accountable.
I don't know what's going on behind closed doors with Chairman Schiff. I have talked to Republicans who are concerned that there not be interference by Russia. I think that some people need to get the courage to ask questions. And I think that we've got to ask the questions and build the case. And we've got to do it objectively and fairly. And the more we do it together, the better this country is.
WALLACE: OK. So you ask about asking questions. And that raises the question, how far should Democrats be willing to go? For instance, should House Democrats move -- even if it takes a subpoena -- to get the president's tax records? Should they, particularly given the testimony that we heard from Michael Cohen this week, should they require that the president's kids, Eric, Don Junior, Ivanka, come up and testify?
DINGELL: Well, I think that people are going to have to really do some strong thinking about that. I think that there's some reason to think that they may have answers to questions or have been part of discussions.
I think these tax returns are a very interesting discussion. You know, we have financial disclosure on The Hill. We have to -- well, we have it in the executive branch as well. And when you're seeing the kinds of discussions that you are seeing, it's a very legitimate question and we have to talk about it. I think that if he makes his tax returns public, a lot of people, if you're running for president, do you need to make your tax returns -- I think it --
WALLACE: OK.
DINGELL: I mean becomes a question, should everybody have to make them?
WALLACE: Last month Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota suggested on Twitter that Israel supporters in Congress are, in effect, being brought by pro-Israel lobbies. She said this, it's all about the Benjamin's, baby.
Omar apologized for that, but this week she was at it again. She said at a town hall, I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it's OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.
The -- the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said that those more recent comments by Omar are anti-Semitic.
Will the House Democratic leadership discipline Congresswoman Omar?
DINGELL: You know, I'm going to say what I'm worried about in this country, which is what -- this fear and hatred that we're seeing. Anti-Semitism is not OK. We can never forget what happened in Germany and we have to remember that.
But, you know, I come from -- my -- I represent the largest Muslim population in this country too. And the hatred and the targeting we're seeing. One of the most fundamental pillars of our Constitution is under attack. And that is freedom of religion. And we have got to make sure on both sides that everybody is being very careful.
When you look at what happened to her in West Virginia on Friday. Congressman Omar was not all right either. She needs to be careful of her language. We should -- cannot attack -- we have to be very, very careful of anti-Semitism.
And I think -- have talked to Nancy and Steny on Monday and see what they're -- what -- you know, how we all bring ourselves together. But I see it on both sides.
WALLACE: OK.
DINGELL: I see too much hatred, period.
WALLACE: Finally, 2020, you're not running for president, are you?
DINGELL: I am not running for president.
WALLACE: OK. You're the only one of the Democratic Party who isn't.
You are, relatively speaking, in the center. One of the more moderate -- I know you're part of the Progressive Caucus, but in his group, you're relatively moderate in the Democratic Party.
Do you worry that some of these candidates, announced candidates for president, are moving so far to the left and proposing programs that are so expensive that you could conceivably open up an avenue and make it easier for Donald Trump to win re-election?
DINGELL: I'm a pragmatist, by the way, just for the record. I told you two years ago Donald Trump could win, and you all thought I was crazy. And he could win re-election. We have got to be very smart about running this election.
I'm a pragmatist. I am for universal health care, Medicare for all, but I want to get there. If you don't have the vision, you're not going to get there.
We've got a problem with global climate change. I -- you know, people are mad at me all the time. The auto industry's mad at me because I say we need to set 30 fuel economy standards for 2030.
WALLACE: To remind -- to remind people, you are a congresswoman for Michigan.
DINGELL: Michigan. And -- an auto person. But -- and -- you know, but -- so what I do is I went to AOC and said, AOC, we want to go to a carbonless society. Will you work with me to build an electric infrastructure that will help give confidence for people to buy electric vehicles?
WALLACE: And -- and -- and we're running out of time. What did she say?
DINGELL: She's coming to Detroit. I invited her to Detroit and she's going to work with me. That's why we -- everything's got to be like this. Why can't we work together for common goals?
WALLACE: Congresswoman Dingell, again, we are so sorry for your loss. John Dingell, you know, you pointed out --
DINGELL: Was my love.
WALLACE: We were personal friends. You and I have been friends for a long time. He's a remarkable -- was a remarkable man. Thank you for coming in today. And we -- we share in your loss.
DINGELL: Thank you, Chris.
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